Maria Romanova is one of the daughters of Nicholas II. All the twists and turns of her fate were associated with belonging to a crowned family. She lived a short life, cut short on a summer night in 1918 due to the massacre of the Bolsheviks. The figure of Maria, her sisters, brother and parents have become symbols of the tragic history of Russia and the senseless cruelty of the Civil War.
Birth
The third daughter of the last Russian Tsar Romanova Maria Nikolaevna was born on June 14, 1899 in Peterhof, where the imperial family spent their summer holidays. The third pregnancy of Alexandra Feodorovna was not easy. She even fainted, which is why she had to spend the last few weeks in a special gurney. Relatives and doctors seriously feared for the life of the mother and child, but, in the end, the birth went well. The girl was born strong and he althy.
Romanova Maria Nikolaevna was baptized on June 27th. The ceremony was conducted by John Yanyshev, the confessor of the imperial family. There were about 500 people in the Peterhof church at that moment - relatives,foreign envoys, courtiers, maids of honor. The solemn ceremony ended with a salute of 101 shots, church hymns and bells. True, the very next day, Nikolai's fatherly joy was replaced by bitterness due to the news of the death of his brother Georgy, who died of tuberculosis.
Childhood
The nanny of Mary and her sisters was the Englishwoman Margaret Eager. She worked in Russia for six years and, returning to her homeland, published her memoirs about the royal family. Thanks to these memoirs and many more documents left by witnesses and contemporaries, today it is possible to thoroughly restore the personality and character traits of the Grand Duchess. Romanova Maria Nikolaevna was a cheerful and agile girl with dark blue eyes and light brown hair. In adolescence and young age, she was distinguished by high growth.
Because of the simplicity and good-natured character, the princess in the family began to be called Masha. The name Mary was also often used. The habit of naming relatives in the English manner was the norm for the royal family. Most of all, Maria was friends with her younger sister Anastasia, under whose influence she played pranks a lot, and later began to play tennis. Another favorite hobby of the girls was music - they often turned on the gramophone and jumped to the tunes to the point of exhaustion. Under the daughters' bedroom was the room of Alexandra Feodorovna, in which she received all kinds of officials. The hype at the top often led to embarrassment, because of which the Empress had to send ladies-in-waiting there. Maria and Anastasia were considered "younger"a couple as opposed to the "older" - Olga and Tatiana.
As a child, the sisters had a common abbreviation OTMA (according to the first letters of their names), with which they signed letters. Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna Romanova spent most of her life with her family in Tsarskoe Selo. Her parents did not like the St. Petersburg Winter Palace - it was too big and drafts often walked there, more than once becoming the cause of children's illness.
Every summer the family went on a cruise on the Shtandart yacht. Traveled mainly in the Gulf of Finland and small islands. Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna Romanova rarely traveled abroad. Twice she visited numerous relatives in England and Germany. The royal family, thanks to numerous marriages, was closely connected with all European dynasties.
In early childhood, the girl spent a lot of time with her nanny. Many funny and curious episodes of the biography of the royal family were connected with Margarita Eager. For example, because of the nanny Romanova, Maria Nikolaevna acquired an Irish accent of the English language (she was a native of Belfast). "Distortion" led to the fact that the royal family hired a new teacher, Charles Sidney. He corrected Mary's and her sisters' Irish accents.
The girl started studying at the age of eight. Her first subjects were calligraphy, reading, the law of God, and arithmetic. Then foreign languages \u200b\u200b(English, French, German) and natural sciences were added. They also taught playing the piano and dancing, which Maria Nikolaevna Romanova could not do without. The daughter of Nicholas 2 had to correspond to her statusand possess all the skills accepted among girls in the highest aristocratic environment. Maria was best given English, in which she often communicated with her parents.
Education
The girl's mother was generally distinguished by a strict character. Nikolai behaved completely differently. The father often scolded Maria and his other children where Alexandra Fedorovna could punish or reprimand. The Empress kept her daughters in a tight rein - she followed their social circle. When the girls grew up, the mother began to fear their rapprochement with any aristocratic families or even cousins. From the point of view of Alexandra Feodorovna, the correct upbringing must necessarily be deeply Orthodox. The influence of the mother markedly affected the views and characters of the daughters. All of them (especially Olga, but also Maria) became mystical and zealous Christians.
Maria Nikolaevna Romanova, like her sisters, never married - the war prevented her. Of course, the daughters of the king were considered as potential brides of future heirs to the thrones in other European powers. However, as contemporaries noted, Mary, due to her deep Orthodox faith, did not want to marry a foreigner at all. Together with her sisters, she dreamed of marriage with a Russian aristocrat in her homeland.
Alexandra Fedorovna, having isolated her daughters from any outside companies, made them infantile. Maria Nikolaevna Romanova, already grown up, could talk like a 10-year-old girl. Deprived of communication with peers and livedaccording to the peculiar rules of the court, she experienced certain difficulties in contact with the adult world.
There were still many strange features in the upbringing of the emperor's daughters. For example, for some time, the supervision of the girls passed to Ekaterina Schneider, the reader of Alexandra Feodorovna. German by birth, she had a poor idea of Russian realities. Her horizons were limited by the rules of yard etiquette. Finally, the parents treated Maria and her sisters as little girls, even when they were already approaching the threshold of their twenties. For example, Alexandra Feodorovna personally checked every book her daughters received.
Brother and Rasputin
Mary was the third of the king's four daughters. In 1904, the emperor finally had a son, Alexei, who became heir to the throne. The boy suffered from hemophilia - a serious illness, because of which he repeatedly found himself on the verge of life and death. The ailment of the Tsarevich was a secret family. Few knew about him, including Maria Nikolaevna Romanova.
The daughter of Nicholas II loved her younger brother very much. This deep sentimental feeling became the reason for attachment to Grigory Rasputin. A Siberian peasant who came to St. Petersburg was able to help the heir to the throne. He relieved the suffering of the boy. The main means of this strange pilgrim was prayer. His mysticism further strengthened the fanatical faith in Christianity of the emperor's daughters. After the murder of Rasputin, Maria attended his funeral.
During the war
According to the Romanov tradition at the age of 14Maria was made a colonel of the 9th Kazan Dragoon Regiment. Exactly one year after this event, the First World War began. German Emperor Wilhelm II was Mary's paternal cousin. On the day war was declared, the girl cried bitterly - she did not understand why the next of kin could not agree among themselves.
Romanova Maria Nikolaevna knew nothing about bloodshed. The events of the Russo-Japanese War and the first revolution fell on an almost unconscious age. Now the girl had to plunge into completely different conditions of existence. Maria and Anastasia worked in hospitals - sewing clothes for the wounded, preparing bandages, etc. While Olga and Tatiana became full-fledged sisters of mercy, their younger sisters were still too young for this. Maria and Anastasia arranged balls in hospitals, played cards with the soldiers, and read to them. Nikolai's third daughter loved to start conversations with the wounded, asking them about their children and families. The girls gave gifts to each discharged soldier. Often these were images and icons. During the war, one of the hospitals in honor of Mary was named Mariinsky.
In addition to the fact that Wilhelm was the closest relative of the royal family, Alexandra Feodorovna herself was also a German by birth. These facts have become fertile ground for rumors that the Empress, the princesses and, in general, the entire royal family, one way or another, sympathize with the enemy. These speculations were especially popular among the military. In hospitals, some soldiers and officers specifically started talking about the German Kaiser in order toto poke girls. Maria answered direct questions about "Uncle Willie" each time that she did not consider him her uncle and did not want to hear about him.
February Revolution
In February 1917, Princess Maria Nikolaevna Romanova was in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. At the end of the month, mass demonstrations of city residents began in Petrograd, dissatisfied with the lack of bread. On March 2, spontaneous actions ended with the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne. The emperor at that time was at Headquarters at the front. On the way to Petrograd, while on the train, he signed the abdication (for himself and for his son).
Maria learned the news about her father's decision thanks to Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich, who specially came to the Alexander Palace. The building was cordoned off by a detachment of soldiers who still remained true to their oath. On March 8, Count Pavel Benckendorff informed the Romanov family that from that day on they were under house arrest. Nicholas arrived at the palace the next morning.
On the same day, a measles epidemic broke out in the building. Romanova Maria Nikolaevna also became infected. The third daughter of the emperor fell ill after her older sisters. The temperature rose extremely high. A cold that began at the same time could cause pneumonia. For several days the princess did not get out of bed, she began to delirium. Otitis soon developed. The girl even went deaf in one ear for a while.
House arrest
After recovery, the former princessMaria Nikolaevna Romanova returned to her usual measured life in Tsarskoye Selo. On the one hand, her daily routine has not changed in any way - she continued to study, and spent her free time in entertainment with her family. But there have been significant changes as well. The princesses began to do more house cleaning, cooking, etc. The time for walking was reduced. Members of the Romanov family could not leave Tsarskoe Selo, they were met by a hooting crowd near the bars. The free press (especially the left-wing newspapers) denounced the abdicated emperor and his family in every possible way.
The situation was heating up every day. The further fate of the Romanovs was unclear. Living in Tsarskoye Selo, the members of the dynasty were in limbo. After the abdication, Nikolai asked Kerensky to send him to Murmansk, from where he and his family could move to England to live with his cousin George V. The provisional government agreed and began negotiations with London. Preliminary consent soon arrived from England. However, the departure was postponed. This was done because of the same measles that the princesses, including Romanova Maria Nikolaevna, were ill with. The daughter of Alexandra Feodorovna recovered, but in April Georg had already withdrawn his invitation. The British king changed his mind due to the unstable political situation in his own country. In parliament, the left raised a flurry of criticism towards the monarch because of his intentions to shelter a deposed relative. The English ambassador George Buchanan, telling Kerensky about the will of his king, sobbed. Nikolay received the news about his cousin's demarche steadfastly andcalmly.
Departure from Tsarskoye Selo
In the face of a surge of anti-monarchist sentiments, the Provisional Government decided to resettle the Romanovs away from Petrograd and Moscow. Kerensky personally discussed this issue with Nikolai and his wife. In particular, the option of moving to Livadia was considered. But, in the end, it was decided to send the former crowned family to Tobolsk. On the one hand, Kerensky urged Nicholas to leave Tsarskoye Selo, explaining that the Romanovs would be in constant danger there. On the other hand, the head of the Provisional Government could choose Tobolsk in order to please the leftists, who declared that the abdicated emperor was a serious danger and a figure around which radical monarchists united.
The train with the Romanovs left Tsarskoye Selo on August 2, 1917. The train was under the flag of the Red Cross. The provisional government tried to hide all evidence of the movements of the royal family. Maria Nikolaevna Romanova, whose photo had previously been constantly found in the newspapers, along with her relatives, disappeared from public view. The train arrived in Tyumen on 5 August. Then the Romanovs boarded a steamer and on it they reached Tobolsk along the Tobol, where they settled in the house of the former governor. A few servants, maids of honor and teachers, moved with the family.
Tobolsk
The life of the Romanovs in Tobolsk was calm and unremarkable. However, clouds soon began to gather over the family. In October 1917, power in Petrograd passed to the Bolsheviks. ATunlike the Provisional Government, they did not experience any tolerance for the royal family. The new government was going to judge Nicholas. For this, it was planned to move the whole family to Moscow or Petrograd. Lev Trotsky was going to be the prosecutor at the trial.
The new guards of the Romanovs in Tobolsk treated them much more unkindly than before. In April 1918, the prisoners (except Nikolai) burned their diaries and letters, fearing searches and raids. This was also done by Maria Nikolaevna Romanova. The biography of the girl promised to be completely different, but in the circumstances of the revolutionary chaos, the daughter of the king had no choice but to refuse the last reminders of her former carefree life over and over again.
On April 23, Commissar Yakovlev informed Nikolai of his intention to take him away from Tobolsk. He tried to argue, but then the prisoner was reminded of his forced status. The Bolsheviks were going to take Nikolai alone, but, in the end, Alexandra Fedorovna and Romanova Maria Nikolaevna went with him. The third daughter was on her way after being chosen by her mother. Most likely, Alexandra Feodorovna decided to take Maria with her because at that time she was the most physically strong of the four sisters.
None of the travelers knew where they were being taken. Nikolai assumed that the Bolsheviks were going to send him to Moscow so that he himself would sign the separate Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. There was also no unity among the escorts. After all sorts of intrigues among the Bolsheviks, at the end of April, the prisoners were brought to Yekaterinburg. Upon arrival in the city, almost the entire retinue of the family was sentto the local prison.
Death
The Romanovs were placed in the house of engineer Ipatiev. A month later, on May 23, the rest of the family arrived there. The last days of the Romanovs can be judged from the diary of Nikolai. He led it for almost his entire conscious life and did not abandon it even after this habit became simply dangerous. In the evenings, Maria and her relatives spent time playing bezique (a popular card game) or playing scenes from performances. Together with her father, she read Tolstoy's War and Peace.
In early July, the Bolsheviks realized that they would inevitably have to surrender Yekaterinburg to the approaching Whites. Retreat was only a matter of time. Under the circumstances, the party leaders decided to get rid of the royal family. Evidence about how the fate of the Romanovs was decided is contradictory, but historians today generally agreed that Lenin and Sverdlov had the final say.
On the night of July 16-17, 1918, a truck drove up to the Ipatiev House, which was soon used as a corpse truck. The Romanovs and their servants were lowered into the basement. Until the last second, they did not suspect their fate. The head of the firing squad read out the fatal decree, after which he fired at the former tsar. Then the rest of the Bolsheviks did the same with the rest of the members of the imperial family.
The tragic death of the Romanovs shocked many: monarchists, liberals, foreign audiences. For many years, the Soviet authorities distorted the facts about the treacherous murder. Many of hiscircumstances have become known only in recent decades. The Romanovs were especially grieved in exile. Every poem dedicated to Maria Nikolaevna Romanova, every obituary and every testimony of contemporaries who knew and saw the princess unanimously testified that she was an outstanding girl, worthy of her high status and unjustly died at the whim of the new government. The remains of the Tsar's daughter (and her brother Alexei) were discovered only in 2007, although the rest of the Romanovs were buried in the early 1990s. In 2015, the government decided to rebury them.
